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Yesterday saw Australia celebrate its national “Australia Day”, remembering the first fleet of ships that arrived from the UK over 200 years ago. The nation has been hitting economic headlines recently though and not for celebratory reasons, with the economy drawing concern over its growth decline and rise in unemployment.

The country seemed to be fairing economically strong in 2016. Unemployment had been declining from 5.99% in January to 5.61% in September. Exports had grown from 17.5bn USD in January to 22.6bn USD by November and tourism was still a strong contributor to the economy with 7bn USD in the third quarter of 2016 – over 12% growth compared to the same period of the previous year.

The last few months however showed Australia taking an unexpected turn, as economic activity slowed down. Real Gross Domestic Product increased by just 1.76% year-on-year in the third quarter and thus registered the slowest growth pace since Q3 2009. Regardless of the strong international markets surrounding Australia it appears for some reason that their economy is indeed taking a negative turn. Whether this is a continuing trend for 2017 or a short term bump in the road, the next few months will help decipher what is causing this fluctuation and its long term impact on the Australian economy.

As of 2016 the population of the 28 members of the European Union amounted to 511.5mn people or around 69% of the total population of the continent. While the majority of the EU countries are held in high regard in terms of their quality of life, there are considerable demographic issues that have been bothering the EU for decades – low birth rates, ageing population and high emigration.